Book Denounces Vatican Inaction

One of the key Jewish Agency officials involved in rescue work during World War II criticized the Vatican’s inaction in a new book about that period. The book, “Rescue During the Holocaust,” written by Haim Barlass, who directed rescue work from Geneva and Istanbul during the Holocaust, charges that Pope Pius XII had all the facts about Nazi atrocities, but did nothing to prevent them.

Barlass says that the World Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency submitted detailed reports to representatives of the Pope in several countries and they received written confirmations that the reports had arrived. However, Barlass charges, at no time was there any indication that the Pope was doing something to save Jews, despite the fact that he declared he was doing so. There was no basis for arguments made later by the Catholic church that the Pope had not known about the Jewish Holocaust, Barlass charges.